Sojourn with Soldiering

 Sojourn with soldiering has been eventful for personal as well as professional reasons. Professionally, it has been extremely satisfying rubbing shoulders with the best military brains in the country, or should I say locking our knees, as that is where our brains have been lodged, in safe custody, ever since we made this choice of a life in uniform. I have often wondered, whether the common perception of matters military being more brawn and no brain, has been engendered and encouraged by soldiers themselves, to keep the others from prying into their intensely private world. The life in the cantonments is a cocooned, sheltered and highly secure life, which is obviously a matter of curiosity and intrigue for the “civilians”, as we like to call them. The “bl****  civilians” was how the British would address them and we in uniform, being the true inheritors of their legacy, have  been following suit without as much as pausing to ponder whether this term is apt in the post colonial India. We have paid for this folly, no, not by being alienated from the society at large, but by antagonizing the jholawalas, who succeeded the colonial masters. The derogatory references to the politicians of the day, obviously did not endear the uniformed community to the leaders of the day. We lost out, the bureaucrats quite naturally usurped this space which was vacated by the generals.

Have we learnt our lessons? Obviously we have not, instead we have been ostrich like in our whole attitude towards the stark reality staring at us, yes we are at the fringes of the state decision making, despite being the most powerful organ with the distinction of having come up trumps in every crisis that the wise babus have landed us into. So is there another way out, or are we doomed to be the scavengers, a role which has been thrust on us, cleaning up the mess... Yes there are reasons why this demotion in pecking order has been justified all this while, and our neighbours have provided our bureaucrats the right bogey of a threat of a military coup, should the armed forces acquire a stake in decision making. Although this has been amply proven over the last seven decades that Indian Armed Forces are happy being apolitical, even when there have been chances, they have preferred to follow their ancestors, ie the British Army. 

But  “times they are a changin” as Bob Dylan would have crooned, the armed forces are no longer an island, in fact now we find ourselves indistinguishable from the rest. The cantonments are in the heart of the cities, the men have to stay in accommodations in civil areas because of a perennial dearth of housing, and most of all the information revolution has ensured that we live in this global village, so no more of that snobbish, snooty stiff upper lip, we need to connect with the people, with the media and of course with our political masters and yes not to forget the all powerful babus. This realisation has been there for a while now within the community, but not knowing the future course of action we have been left groping in this blind alley. We have had our share of generals, air marshals and admirals hobnobbing with the politicians seeking their favour for obtaining promotions within the service and later scouting for those plum gubernatorial or ambassadorial assignments. There have also been instances a la Krishna Menon, when the politicians have also flaunted their muscle in an unsavoury manner with disastrous consequences. 

As a mature democracy, by now we should have found our rightful place in the hierarchy of state machinery. But are we really a mature democracy, actually our democracy is a beautiful mirage which the middle class would like to believe as true, which the West can admire from afar. Our forefathers were well meaning intellectuals, giants of men, they had a vision of a glorious Indian nation which has been belied by this crop of pygmies whom we have inherited, intellectually bankrupt and corrupt to the core. Poor governance has been at the root cause over decades.There are many who would differ from this assessment, citing our arrival at global arena because of the economic growth in the last three decades. But an honest appraisal would leave you with some disturbing thoughts, this  is actually a miracle as the as some Western tourist apparently commented, "After coming to India I am a firm believer that there is a God, after all in so much chaos there is still an order, it can only be possible with the benevolence of the Almighty." May be He will finally have mercy on the ignoramuses and deliver them from this penance of seventy five years in this Amrit Kaal.